Frankly - if a 9 year old can pass it, even with help from his parents, it shows exactly how hard the test actually is. Anyone who fails and complains just didn't work hard enough in the fifteen minutes of their time they devoted to it?

A 9 year old is not stupid. They are just mostly empty, so when they find things that interest them, they're like a sponge - they soak it up. The ham exam is not hard. On our current education scale - it's roughly sitting at Level 2, as in GCSE standard. That's why a 9 year old can pass it!

The main complainers fail at an earlier stage:
"I cannot attend on a Monday, I watch television"
"There is nobody to give me a lift"
"The bus fare is too expensive"
"There is no bus stop in my road"
"I cannot attend where other people are present"
"I cannot contact the radio club as my phone has no credit"

Kaliphan wrote:It's not difficult, never has been despite what the G3's would like you to believe.

Might not have been difficult, in an absolute sense, but any exam where you actually have to write your answer rather than tick a multiple choice box, as I did, is more difficult. You have to have a proper memory for a start.

Totally agree, and you needed to be be good at maths. Multiple choice question setting is based on one that is obviously wrong to the majority, one that is obviously wrong to those more advanced, leaving two choices that might be right, but probably have a slight 'wrongness' - like 62V instead of 6.2V so if you do the maths in your head, it's easy to get the decimal point wrong.

I seem to remember getting values for a capacitor, inductor and resistor and being asked what the operating frequency would be - and unlike modern exams, the formula isn't on the paper! Sadly, like all qualifications, the exams have progressively changed over the years. To the old people, the new ones are ridiculously easy. To the new people, they aren't - but the knowledge of a teenager now in some areas is way above what the old G3 age group people could answer. Different people, different age, different exams.

My O Level physics book - is small print and two inches thick and only has information. The modern GCSE physics book has far fewer pages, much more pictures and photo content, and is full of exercises to do after each chapter. The content is just as hard, BUT, nowhere near as wide. Much as I 'know' my exam was harder in terms of what I had to do, it also didn't have to cover data, and any of the inventions that happened after 1980. So people were still building radios, so needed to know how they worked inside, how to fix them, test them and make certain they didn't interfere. That's why the exam made sure you understood electronics that touched on radio. Now people buy radios, and some on this forum get scared at having to even go out and buy a soldering iron. Therefore the test doesn't need people to go inside and fix things.

It's never been a test of intelligence, it has always been a gate keeping device for the bands - it still is, hence the current content, and simplicity. Some old licences may well be amazingly skilled in electronics and very capable - but some cannot use a computer. Qualifications are always era specific.

You don't need to be overly educated to use a PTT and talk to someone, it's a hobby not an exam to be a Consultant in A&E.

You don't need to sit a competency exam to own a firearm in the UK, just be of sound character, maybe Ofcom should check with an RAE applicant's GP to ascertain their state of mind rather than make them sit a useless exam?